The Chaos Engine review – oh brother

The creators of Speedball and Z resurrect another of their old Amiga classics, but has this steampunk shooter weathered the test of time?

We may as well go for broke here. In our opinion not only was The Chaos Engine never any good but the only genuine classic The Bitmap Brothers ever made was Speedball 2. Now, we love Speedball 2 like a future sports-playing brother, so that’s more than enough for us. But we always felt that games like Xenon 2, Cadaver, and Gods were a case of style over substance. Z was better, but by that time the Amiga days – and the Bitmaps themselves – were nearly over.

Although we’d dispute the ultimate quality of their games we still have a great deal of respect for the work The Bitmap Brothers did. They were the UK’s first celebrity developers, projecting themselves as stylish rockstars not nerdish programmers. Their name alone was enough to sell almost any game across a wide range of genres, from platformer to isometric adventure. They had their own distinctive art style and were famed for the slickness of their presentation and the quality of their music.

It’s just the gameplay that wasn’t always that memorable.

The Chaos Engine is a top-down shooter that could vaguely be described as a cross between Gauntlet and Smash T.V., except with far less enemies on screen than either. This new release is essentially a HD remake of the 1993 Amiga version, with an original mode and an ‘enhanced’ option that updates the graphics and controls slightly.

The vaguely told story takes place in a steampunk version of Victorian England and involves sentient computers, prehistoric monsters, and the abandonment of the British Isles. You play one of a group of six mercenaries sent in to sort the mess out and…. that’s it. The story is never really explored after the intro and so what sounds like an enticingly original set-up for a game goes completely to waste.

It might not have much of a story but what The Chaos Engine does have is shooting, lots of shooting. Always intended as a co-op game for two players, the six characters are paired in one of three groups with the Navvie and Thug being the tanks with lots of health, the biggest guns, and the slowest movement. The Brigand and Mercenary are your all-rounders, while the Gentleman and Preacher are the fast-but-weak characters that no one ever chooses (even though the Gentleman does have a pipe).

Each character also has their own special moves, which range from more powerful area attacks to a map to show you where you’re going. The characters can also be upgraded to quite some degree, with collected tokens allowing you to change their stats and the power of their weapons.

The Chaos Engine (PC) – at least the music is still good

Again, it all sounds very promising on paper but the sad reality is that The Chaos Engine is an almost instantly bland and repetitive experience. The Bitmaps’ iconic art style looks very good in the static screens but the backdrops of the actual game are extremely spartan, with some sections almost seeming to take place against a blank background.

The real problem though is just how toothless the combat is. The Chaos Engine is not an easy game and you have to pump so many bullets into most enemies that it’s a real struggle to spray enough into them before they reach you. This leads to what is our abiding memory of the game from the first time round: shooting bad guys you can’t quite see while they’re still mostly off-screen – thereby making the levels seem even more empty and barren.

There’s no real puzzle element either, just some simple key collection as you slowly open up locked areas of the map. And we do mean slow because even the fastest characters chug along at a frustratingly slow speed.

Previously all this was matched with a control system that only allowed you to fire in eight directions (analogue controllers were only for flight sims back then). You still have that option here if you want to play in classic mode, but the ability to aim more accurately is the main change for the enhanced mode. It also adds in an online co-op option, but it’s telling that even just a few days after launch there’s no one playing.

In the end the only thing that really seems worth resurrecting is the glorious 16-bit soundtrack by Richard Joseph. If that was available separately we’d advise an instant purchase, not just because it’s a classic of the era but because it means you don’t have to suffer the disillusionment of having to play the game again.

In Short: It was arguably never very good even back in the day, but playing it now The Chaos Engine’s basic action is hopelessly outclassed by any number of retro and contemporary titles.

Pros: It’s a perfectly competent remastering of the original, with some useful changes to the controls and the addition of online co-op. Excellent soundtrack.

Cons: Dull, repetitive, and frustrating action. A poor use of the Bitmap’s usual art style, with very bland-looking level design. Promising storyline is completely wasted.